I found a very useful article about how to prepare vegetables for your fish And I thought it might be good to make a separate post about it as many people use to ask which veggies to feed and how to prepare them. (Mods: It'd be great if you could stick it in place!!)

It's written by Nathan D'Addio:

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Notes:- Do not BOIL the vegetables too long as that will remove the nutrients from them. Only until they will sink in the pot. You can skip boiling altogether (except with carrots) as long as you'll somehow make the vegetables stay in place, by attaching them to a vegetable clip or to the bottom somehow.- The peas don't need to be boiled at all, just pop them out of their shells when they're thawed and feed to your fish.- Sometimes, if you have smaller goldfish/tropical/marine fish, you may need to cut the veggies in smaller pieces to make it easier for them to eat!- You can leave the veggies in the tank for up to 48 hours without trouble, but the shorter the better. I use to remove the veggies after 24 hours.- Experiment with other vegetables and fruits as well such as banana, strawberries, water melon, apples, pear, orange pulp and others. Just be sure that you don't leave the fruits in the tank too long as they may pollute the water much easier than vegetables do!- Feed it to your fish a few times a week, especially egg-shaped or older goldfish will benefit from a diet high in vegetable matter Remember to also feed them live foods from time to time! Such as blood worms, tubifex, brine shrimp, shrimp, krill... and that the base of the diet should contain a good quality staple pellet to be sure that the fish get all the nutrients they need!!

We eat alot of veggies at our house so I guess I feed whatever we are having for lunch or dinner! Yesterday and today they got broccoli because we had that steamed in the microwave for lunch.We like our veggies raw or steamed crisp so that is the way I feed veggies to the fish too.

Karma to that, Hanna! I really hope so too! There are lots of posts that deal with the same problem, I think it'd be great if they'd check them out a bit for instance if they have a sick fish or something!

As it always will be a question I summarize some of our posts and and add it to Nossies thread which is a Sticky now.This is about what to feed goldfish. It includes a huge list of foods we feed. Very important is the variety offered, as if goldfish would get only one or two types of food they easily will get constipated.It is also important to feed sinking pellets, especially for egg shaped varieties as they will gasp too much air at the surface and will face swim bladder problems.

Feeding advice:1. Feeding amount: there are a few different opinions, as there are different advices in different Goldfish books:In Nossies book they say to feed up to 3-5 times a day but VERY, VERY, VERY TINY AMOUNTS. This is very good if someone is at home to do this. Would be ideal.I also read like I posted at the start 2 times a day, max 3 an amount they will eat up in 2 minutes (not to feed for 2 minutes)For our fishies I'll stick to this one as we are working, so they get their feed once in the morning and once in the evening as soon as we are back. And they are beautiful, happy and healthy fishies.

2. Automatic feeder: this is a VERY good option if people are on holidays and there is no friend, family member to come and feed the fish... or to have it anyway....

3. Somebody comes to feed the fish: leave strict instructions and have single food amounts PREPACKED for the time you are away

4. Slow disolving feeding-blocks: ABSOLUTELY NO !!! As I mentioned before, for a few people it might work, but for majority it doesn't: result: polluted water, sick and/or dead fish ....Before going on vacation do a larger waterchange, about 4050%

Nossie, can you please add those gammarus pics, also those bloodworm and blackworm ones. I also welcome everybody in adding facts to this thread. THANK YOU.

Live foods should be included in every goldfish's diet, and i fact, all other fish too unless they're vegetarian. Do some research!

The most common live foods are available as freeze-dried, frozen, fresh or packed in gel.Here are blood worms, that are available in every form, and also the most used one. Generally all goldfish will accept and appreciate this food.[image] [image]

Further there are tubifex, that you should really buy only as freeze-dried, otherwise you may introduce unwanted disease to your tank! Usually packed in cubes, since they're so small! Tubifex are mud-dwelling worms and live in pretty dirty places which is why it's so easy for them to "collect" parasites and other pathogens.These cubes should be torn in smaller parts and soaked before feeding! Just take a small cup, a chopstick and some tank water and put the small pieces of tuifex there, squeeze the air out of them with the stick. Otherwise they'll be tricky to spot and to catch by the goldfish Tubifex and blood worms are wonderful for younger fish that need protein!Live foods should be fed a few times a week, I use to feed it to them 3-4 times a week

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There are also lots and lots of shrimp available as fish food, both frozen and freeze-dried! Shrimp contain lots of protein, and some shrimp even have a color-enhancing effect, such as Krill. These can be soaked, which is recommended if the shrimp are hard. Gammarus, for instance can be tossed directly into the tank without further problems Here are some pictures of Gammarus and Krill:[image] [image]

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Now there are still a lot more live foods available than this, but the best thing to do here is also buy a few kinds and see what your goldfish like most! You could try brine shrimp, plankton, black worms...

I'll add some photos of flake and pellet food. Especially the pellets should be soaked first, so they are nice and soft.I usually soak them in "garlic guard". This garlic liquid is also good to prevent internal bacterial infections, but it also helps finnicky eaters. Goldfish love the garlic smell.

Browse in your pet shop and familiarize yourself with the different types of foods and their ingredients. Keep away from cheap, cheap, cheap foods, go for the high quality ones. Also I recommend not to buy the very big tins or cans ( except you've got hundreds of fish ) as the food can go stail.

Have you got your pleco in with your goldies? Ahh your brave!! I soo want to do that with a bristlenose instead due to the fact that I love them but also to eat up all the algae which annoys me The only downer to having goldfish! But I'm to scared it will get attached to one of my fish especially cause Clementine likes to sleep low.

I was thinking about avoiding it, but then I remembered that... in fact, I've successfully kept bristlenoses with goldfish for at least 10 years! Not a scratch on the goldies So I decided to take the chance and toss the Gibbiceps in there! (That's the exact species, and he's going to be SO HUGE! D8) He's meant to be extra peaceful anyway c: I have to find some frozen shrimp and some zucchini to feed him!

Did I already mention that he ate all the beautiful green carpet I had grown on my driftwood? It's... it's bald. COMPLETELY! In just a week. And he's allover the plants and all, I decided not to bother cleaning off any algae myself having such a crazy guy in there xD

Ohhhh guys, you are making me think too much and really consider getting a bristlenose. I have the room in the tank, ahhh I dunno Decisions, decisions lol. But what happens if they just latch on one day, not because they are hungry but just because they think it is something to latch onto??? I'm scared of coming home to that

I'll have to have a big think and talk to some people to see if anyone could take it if it doesn't work out.

I don't think so Bristlenoses are very, very peaceful! If you'd get two of them, they'd do great! And really, I've never seen a bristlenose suck on a goldfish xD Ever xD

But I read recently that this pleco of mine MIGHT develop a habit to do so O_O Mainly on discus fish but... CAN YOU IMAGINE?! A 50cm pleco is sucking on my precious little goldies?! D8Nepp, now I have to get myself a second tank and some Oscars. Yes, that'll do.Okay, I'll make a thread for Danny!

that is some great infomation the article was well worth the read, I was looking for some different food for my fishies but I had know idea about vegetable and fruits how good is that, thankyou Nossie.

Every body has cotributed a lot of info to this topic page there is a wider range of food varieties than I could have imagined, and with those picture make identification of products so much easier.